These easy Teff Almond Butter Cookies are nutritionally packed and have an addictive almond flavor. Gluten-free, vegan, and refined sugar-free.
Teff is a humble tiny grain that is a nutritional powerhouse. This whole-grain exotic flour pairs well with nuts, bittersweet chocolate, cocoa powder, fruits, and seeds.
Like these fudgy teff brownies or teff oatmeal cookies, dark chocolate makes a good match.
But you'll find in this recipe, that almonds and teff make for delicious and delightful treats!
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Why you'll love this recipe
- Nutritionally packed cookie
- Easy recipe
- Simple ingredients
- These cookies will melt in your mouth!
Ingredients and substitutions
Here are a few quick notes about the ingredients in this recipe. You can see a complete ingredient list and instructions in the recipe card below.
Teff flour - With a wonderfully nutty taste, teff is a tiny gluten-free grain that is very finely ground gluten-free flour rich in essential amino acids, minerals, vitamins, fiber, and a low-glycemic index.
You can find the flour in health food stores, many grocery stores, and online. I like using Bob's Red Mill brand.
Almond butter - This acts as our binder and fat as well as flavor. If you use salted almond butter, you might want to adjust the salt in the recipe.
(If you love almond butter, you need to try granola butter!)
Maple syrup - Gives these cookies just the right amount of sweetness.
Vanilla extract - Helps round out the sweetness and all-around flavor!
Almond extract - One of the star ingredients! A little bit goes a long way to making these gluten-free cookies irresistible.
How to make teff almond butter cookies
Before you start: Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat.
Step 1: In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients; teff flour, salt, and cinnamon.
Step 2: Then add the wet ingredients; almond butter, maple syrup, coconut oil (ensure it is no longer hot), and almond and vanilla extracts. Stir with a rubber spatula until well combined. Allow dough to rest for 5 minutes.
Step 3: Use a tablespoon or #40 cookie scoop, then roll the cookie dough into small balls and place on the baking sheet.
Step 4: With a fork, flatten balls about halfway down into a cookie shape. Sprinkle cookies with sea salt. Bake for 10-11 minutes.
Recipe tips
- Let the dough rest for about 5 minutes before rolling it into balls. This will allow for the flour to absorb some of the mixtures.
- A little sprinkle of sea salt on top right before baking is highly recommended!
- Storing the teff cookies at room temperature will create softer cookies over time, storing them in the refrigerator will give them a little more of a bite.
FAQs
Teff is considered an ancient grain. The teff grain comes from the lovegrass plant (Eragrostis tef) native to Africa.
Teff has a wonderful nutty, earthy flavor and is great when used in combination with other gluten-free flours. It pairs well with nuts (hazelnuts and almonds!), seeds, chocolate, and sweeteners like maple syrup and coconut sugar. It is used in making traditional injera but is excellent in cookies, muffins, bread, crackers, and porridge.
More gluten-free cookie recipes
Love this recipe? Please consider leaving a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟rating on the recipe card below and let me know what you think in the comments!
📖 Recipe
Teff Almond Butter Cookies (Gluten-free, Vegan)
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (245g) teff flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 cup unsalted almond butter
- ½ cup maple syrup
- ½ cup coconut oil, melted and cooled
- ¼ teaspoon pure almond extract
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Sea salt for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, combine the teff flour, salt, and cinnamon. Then add the almond butter, maple syrup, coconut oil (make sure it has cooled), and almond and vanilla extracts. Stir with a rubber spatula until well combined. Allow dough to rest for 5 minutes.
- Use a tablespoon or #40 cookie scoop, then roll cookie dough into small balls with your hands and place on prepared baking sheet. With a fork, flatten balls about halfway down into a cookie shape. Sprinkle cookies with sea salt.
- Bake for 10-11 minutes. Remove from baking tray and allow to cool on baking sheet on a wire rack.
Notes
Nutrition
Jessica
Recipe baked up perfectly...taste is amazing....but they are sooo fragile and crumble into bits. Maybe add an egg to bind it? My son went to pick one up and poof...powder.
The mixture was very wet b4 baking so know it's not due to to much flour.
Tessa
Hi Jessica! They are delicate - I haven't tried an egg here but that could help. A little bit of additional almond but may help this too.
Nicole
I found my 'dough' very wet/sticky/oily-looking after following the recipe (with the exception of subbing peanut butter and omitting the almond extract) and I was sure the cookies would end up spreading out like crazy while baking like other commenters mentioned. Also, I recently made a teff oatmeal raisin cookie recipe from elsewhere that also used coconut oil and I had the same thing happen. So this time I pre-empted things by adding in several big spoonfuls of extra teff flour (likely around 1/4 cup) and the dough was much stiffer yet totally workable and roll-able, and I'm happy to report that the cookies didn't spread out and held their shape. If I were to make these again (I'd love to try the tahini variation) I would likely just add less coconut oil. I was curious about these cookies not having any leavening agent (baking soda or powder) but they still turned out fine.
For my second tray, instead of fork imprints and salted tops I made raspberry jam thumbprint cookies and they're very cute. I haven't tried either batch yet as they're cooling but they smell lovely.
Tessa
Hi Nicole! Thank you for sharing - the raspberry jam tops sound absolutely delicious. I am going to have to try that!
Jennifer
This recipe is delicious! First time baking with Teff flour. I used half almond flour and half tahini. My whole family, including toddler loves it! Will definitely make again.
Tessa
That is awesome! Thank you, Jennifer!
Rachel
Really amazing cookies!!! :)
Tessa
Thank you, Rachel!!
Rachel
Thank you so much! Sounds really interesting! Can i sub the almond butter with peanut butter?
Tessa
Hi Rachel! I think natural peanut butter would sub in just fine! :)
Beth
I try introducing healthy options for my toddler... Due to the high protein content of teff, I wanted to intoduce it to his diet and one can't go wrong with cookies. I made a few alterations and it still turned out great, thanks for the wonderful recipe :))))
My son has nut allergies, so instead of almond butter, I used tahini...
Since making it vegan wasn't a concern for me, I used organic butter instead of coconut oil.
Lastly, I didn't sprinkle salt on top as I added 1/2 cup of raisins.
Tessa
Tahini is such a great sub! I'm so glad it worked for you. Thanks so much for your kind note, Beth!!
Liz Smith
So sad to report that I just made the Teff Almond Butter Cookies recipe (following to a "T") and it was a disaster. The cookies melted into each other and didn't adhere as a solid, turning into a mess of crumbs. I saved the mess of cooked crumbs and will probably try using it as pie or crumble crust. I think if I pressed it into the bottom of a dish it might stay put and be delicious.
Tessa
Hi Liz - I'm so sorry to hear that. I know that is frustrating and hate that that was your experience. My only guess as to why they didn't stay solid is that the almond butter may have had a higher oil content. I have found in making other recipes that nut butter oils can vary sometimes and alter the results. I like your idea of saving as a crust and agree it would be delicious as a crumble!
Miriam
These cookies were delicious! It’s hard to find almond butter where I live so I substituted and used Tahina which worked well. Thanks for this recipe
Miriam
Tessa
That's awesome! Thanks so much for your note. I will have to try them with tahini as well. If almond butter is hard to find, you can also throw a couple cups of almonds into a food processor and make your own almond butter. I love toasting my almonds and then processing them!
Maddy
Omg. Tessa. I just made these and I didn't think the batter would make it to the oven because I couldn't stop eating it by the spoonful straight out of the bowl. THESE ARE AMAZING. Where has this recipe been hiding?! Everyone needs to make these!!!! The flavors are incredible - so complex and comforting. I'm graduating college this week and am giving them to my favorite professor as an end-of-the-year thank you. I can't even. I could go on and on. Thank you!!
Tessa
Maddy! I am SO happy you liked them! You just made my day. Seriously. :) And what a compliment that you are giving them as a gift!
Congrats on your graduation!!! What's next for you?
Divya Marwaha
Just made these,and they are absolutely yummy,specially right out of the oven!
Tessa
Thanks so much, Divya!!